Sex offender residency bylaw will be on the ballot in Holden

HOLDEN - Though a select board vote is still nearly a month away, more than a dozen citizens have made their wishes known regarding a proposed sex offender residency bylaw by submitting a petition to put the bylaw before the town at the annual town meeting on May 21.

Town Manager Brian Bullock told the select board Monday the petition resembled the bylaw format submitted by Selectman James Jumonville in February, except for a provision that would prevent registered sex offenders from loitering at specified locations.

The proposed bylaw would prevent registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, churches, parks and places where children and seniors gather. Those who have already established residency before the bylaw takes effect would be exempt. The select board will consider putting their own version of the bylaw on the warrant after a public hearing on April 2.

While formal discussion of a sex offender residency bylaw is being reserved for the public hearing, what Selectman Joseph Sullivan calls some "raw edges" of the subject continue to surface in meetings.

Selectman Kenneth O'Brien said he was concerned about the board's constraint regarding allowing non-citizens to address the board at meetings.

That restriction, Selectman Kimberly Ferguson said, only applies to citizens address, not to public hearings. The two sparred on the matter and on what Ferguson said was the tone of an e-mail from O'Brien on the issue.

Sullivan advised fellow board members to "stay measured and stick to the issue." O'Brien asked to hear from the Holden Police Chief George Sherrill and Town Counsel Robert Martin on the proposed bylaw, which is modeled on West Boylston's bylaw. That bylaw recently received the blessing of the state's attorney general.

Citizens speak

Even before the public hearing, citizens have continued to make their feelings known on the subject at select board meetings.

At Monday's meeting, one voice from each side of the issue was heard from the podium.

Allan Paul Moreau of Main Street recalled a case he says might have been different had there been such a bylaw 50 years ago. At that time, Moreau was involved in helping a 15-year-old girl who was being stalked by a man in a van get him arrested and charged. Moreau was 17 at the time, and, he says, was intimidated by going to the police station for hours of grilling. He later did a little surveillance himself and got the van's license plate number to apprehend the stalker, whose activities began in a church parking lot, one of the places that would be prohibited loitering space under proposed bylaw.

"If this bylaw saves even one child," Moreau said, "isn't it worth it?"

Sterling Road resident Maureen Floryan, however, argued against the bylaw, also based on events like the one Moreau described. Those stranger abductions, she said, are a small proportion of the sexual crimes against children. Most are abused by someone they know.

Floryan encouraged using accurate data when discussing the issue, and also argued that she's seen no data that proves that such bylaws help protect children.